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The Conquest of Deverikon
The Conquest of Deverikon was an Imperial defensive campaign carried out by the Dawn Stalkers Space Marine Chapter supporting Forge World Usides and local guard forces in an unnamed system against the planet of Deverikons and it's armed forces. Background Since the day the Dawn Stalkers came to the aid of Forge World Usides, the two parties have shared a close relationship, often assisting each other in many ways such as assistance in STC retrieval and fabrication of more ancient patterns of weaponry. The Forge World would come to rely on their Astartes allies on many occasions, once such instance being the conquest and near destruction of a plant named 'Deverikon'. A world untouched for the past eight millennia, Deverikon had been disconnected by warp storms from the rest of humanity for a better part of its history, with the subsiding storms finally making warp travel possible again since the outbreak of the heresy. Forge World Usidies, being the closet Imperial world sent forth envoys to investigate and make contact with the world, only to be horrified by their discovery. The world had advanced technologically which, at first, pleased Forge World Usides as the possibility of an SCT being present upon the world increased at such a discovery, but the technology itself was considered heretical to the highest degree by Adeptus Mechanicus doctrine. The world had little in the way of the population due to stagnation, natural disasters and war upon the world and instead utilised humanoid based androids to fight their wars for them to decrease the strain on an already depleted population. Curiously, each android maintained separate weapon systems specialising in specific areas of warfare, while all the more curious and horrifying the discovery, each combat drone had personalities of their own, with some higher-ups of the Forge World daring to say they could 'feel' emotion'. Their appearance was near identical to humans as well, making the distinguishing features between machine and flesh all the harder to discern, only increasing the disgust of the discovery. The council of Usides had decided that the best course of action would be to conquer the world and exterminate any artificial intelligence upon the world while recovering any technology that could still be used by the Imperium. To assist them in this task they called upon nearby Imperial Guard regiments sourced from nearby systems, alongside requesting the Dawn Stalkers for assistance. The 3rd company had begun their journey mere hours after receiving the call to war from their mechanicum allies, arriving 3 weeks after upwards of eight guard regiments had already made planetfall. Gathering intelligence from Usides tech-priests the Astartes of the 3rd discovered that the androids were utilising ballistic based weaponry capable of simple field maintenance and extremely low production costs. However, very few of the weapons they wielded were even capable of piercing flak armour, let alone the Carapace worn by the Stormtroopers of the guard planetside. The war had been fought to a standstill simply due to the androids extreme mobility and noted independence in combat as opposed to following strict chains of command. Guard officers noted that each team acted as its own unit carrying out their own missions as opposed to operating as part of a larger whole. Such an enemy force had seen the guard spread the frontlines in order to hold back enemy attacks, but leading to a nearly halted advance, a problem the Dawn Stalkers would be the solution for. The 3rd captain, nameless due to lost records had decided that in order to allow the entire front to move forward he would split his company into teams of five, each lead by at least a sergeant or higher. Each team would be posted along the frontlines to better assist the forward push, giving the guardsman a heavier hitting and highly mobile force to outmanoeuvre the androids in combat. The wisdom the 3rd captain would be noted for such a decision, for as soon as Astartes units had made planetfall, the frontlines had begun to move forward once more, gaining momentum as the days went by. Such a squad of Astartes was led by a Sergeant named 'Lethurial', known to be the first Astartes to come into contact with the android foes. As the conflict continued and ground steadily gained over several weeks, the last bastion of the enemy was the capital city. Later interrogations made it clear that the humans in-control of the android armies knew the capabilities of the Astartes in close combat, so instead of letting the city become a killing ground for their military forces, they instead pushed their forces into the field, looking to face the invaders in open combat. While no official recordings remain of the battle many guard forces state the field was akin to a junkyard, lined with parts, weapons and' 'dying' androids. To the mortal guardsmen is was an unnerving scene due to many androids bearing striking resemblance to humans, even crying out in fear and mercy as if they were but children. The Dawn Stalkers, however, held no pity towards the robotic menace, and slaughtered without pity for hours on end until the only one left was the commanding android. Now missing his limbs and sobbing, it looked up to sergeant Lethurial with almost human eyes of fear and sadness, uttering "Why?" between the sobs. A crushing boot silenced the noise that Lutherial is noted to have considered 'annoying', later directing his squad to enter the city. The outcome of the battle was considered a resounding success, with minimal guard losses and not one casualty to the Astartes forces. The world and it's people would share a different fate, however, with Inquisitorial orders to bring down Exterminatus on the world, wiping it clean of any and all evidence that the Imperials had ever been there. The reason was not known but the Dawn Stalkers are said to have carried out the order willingly and thoroughly. Category:Campaigns Category:Dawn Stalkers Category:History Category:Imperial Campaigns Category:Space Marines